To me Paula Deen is getting a bad rap. To criticise her for admitting to saying a derogatory word, the N-word in this case, is the height of hyprocracy. Who among us can say we have never made a hateful remark in our lives? None.

I don’t know Paula Deen other than her cooking show, and frankly it’s something I don’t even watch. I also don’t know her management style, or her husband’s.

They could be harsh and demanding, patronizing and belittling. A pending lawsuit alleges those things and more. But the mention of the N-word is what has brought all this attention to the forefront.

Like me, Deen is a person who grew up during changing times in Southern culture. The civil rights movement, school integration, affirmative action all played a big part in our lives. Most Southerners’ perceptions changed over that time. Words and actions that were commonly used 60 years ago, now are a rarity and hardly ever surface in the public domain.

But they have not vanished from our vocabulary and every race, creed and color have said them at some point in their lives and continue to say them today.

Like the F-bomb, the N-word is vulgar. Most of us are uncomfortable, embarrassed or get upset when words like these are spoken. They aren’t used publicly that often, but they still raise their ugly heads when people are upset, had too much to drink or they’re out cutting the fool with friends.

At least Paula Deen is honest. She could have lied under oath and no one would have been the worse for it. If she had it to do over again she probably would lie, and avoid all this unwarranted media attention. But she answered the question truthfully, and being a public figure, look where it got her.

Paula Deen has lost her major sponsors and her Food Channel cooking show, all in the name of political correctness, when in fact she did very little to deserve the rebukes she’s getting for something said years ago.